THE mother of murder victim Angela Heyes says she predicted her daughter's brutal killing nearly 20 years ago. "I told her she'd wind up dead if she carried on as a prostitute," said Joyce Hilton today. Angela's strangled body, naked apart from bra and knickers, was discovered behind a wall at Stones Bank Road, north of Egerton, on Sunday. But it was the following day before police tracked down her mother who lives in Slaidburn Avenue, Breightmet.

Grandmother Joyce - who remarried five years ago following her husband's death - said: "I'd seen the reports on the telly about a murder but it just never clicked that it was my daughter they were talking about.

"I even said to my husband Benjamin what a tragedy it was and think of the poor parents."

Devestated Joyce, 56, formally identified her 33 year old daughter's body on Monday afternoon. "I didn't recognise her," said Joyce. "In the end I identified her from scars on her arms. When she was a teenager she threw a fit and sliced up her arms with a pair of scissors. She still carried silver scars from that." Joyce, a mother of four, had not seen her daughter for three years. "I can only tell you what she was like," she says. The picture she paints is of a daughter who suffered from acute psychological problems.

"She was a sex maniac. I don't think she could have a proper relationship with a man. One wasn't enough for her - it had to be at least eight men a day," says Joyce, who says she was disgusted by her daughter's profession.

According to Joyce, Angela's problems began when she was just eight. At this tender age she would run around the streets naked, hang about with young lads, and steal. The final straw came when she accused her father - the late Henry Heyes - and her grandfather of sexual abuse.

"We got that sorted out and Angela admitted she was telling lies. So I told her we are going to sort this out once and for all." Joyce says she took the youngster to Bolton General Hospital where a child psychologist diagnosed a mental block. "Angela just didn't realise what she was doing," said Joyce.

From the age of eight up until she was 16 Angela was a resident at a corrective school in East Grinstead, she said. She came back to Bolton for holidays but each time there would be trouble. "She would steal from me and blame it on her brothers. She would steal from my friends and she was always hanging around with lads. She was just out of control."

Angela was just 16 when she announced to her mother that she was going to become a prostitute.

"I told her I wouldn't have her in the house if she was up to that sort of thing so she packed her bags and went." In the years since Joyce has seen her daughter infrequently.

"My door was always open but she didn't want to know."

According to Joyce her eldest daughter has spent the past 20 years running away from trouble. She claims the police were after Angela because she lured young girls from Moor Lane into lives of prostitution, and the DSS were after her for fraud. "She was always sleeping with other women's husbands and when they found out they would batter her."

Joyce claims the constant beatings led to Angela taking several overdoses and seeking safety at a women's refuge.

To escape detection she had moved from address to address, changed the colour of her hair and used a list of aliases including Shelley, Michelle, Louise, and Dorothy.

Joyce believes that her daughter's death came after she picked up a punter and either enraged him by changing her mind or arguing over money.

"We all know what she was like but she didn't deserve to die like that." "All the family tried to get her away from prostitution but she wouldn't listen. I just hope she's in a better place now. At least she's no need to run anymore and no need to be scared."

Angela's sister Pamela Heyes, aged 22, last saw her in November - two weeks before Pamela's second child Geena was born.

Pamela of George Street, Farnworth, said her sister was never a happy person. "Perhaps she's better off where she is," she said.

Angela's baby Sabrina, which she had when she was 16, was taken into care when she was just 12 months old.

Pam said: "She had it all, a family and a daughter, but she blew it. "In the end I don't think the money mattered to her. She was just addicted to sex. She was even on the game while she was pregnant."

When Angela was 26 she tried to introduce her 14-year-old sister to prostitution. "She told me she'd show me the ropes but I told her to get stuffed."

Over the years Angela's anxious sister says she has tried to keep tabs on her sister.

"But everytime I tracked her down she'd moved. She didn't want her family but I continued to search because I cared." Towards the end Pamela is convinced her sister was on the run from the police and that explained why she had taken to wearing a wig. "She told me they were after her for taking girls aged 14 and 15 off Moor Lane, getting them on the game and then taking money from them.

"I asked her if it was true and she wouldn't answer. I took that as a yes."

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